Generally, an electrical connector includes some form of dielectric or insulative housing which mounts one or more conductive terminals. The housing is conFIG.d for mating with a complementary mating connector or other connecting device which, itself, has one or more conductive terminals. A connector assembly typically includes a pair of mating connectors, such as plug and receptacle connectors sometimes called male and female connectors.
Various types of electrical connectors are designed for mounting on a printed circuit board. The connectors have terminals which include contact portions for engaging the terminals of a complementary mating connector. The terminals of a board-mounted connector have terminating ends for connection to appropriate circuit traces on the circuit board, such as solder tails for solder connection to the circuit traces on a top surface of the circuit board and/or in holes in the board. Some board-mounted connectors have mating portions extending generally parallel to the circuit board for mating with a complementary connector in a direction parallel to the board. Problems often are encountered in mounting terminals in board-mounted connectors and maintaining the tail portions of the terminals generally planar relative to the flat circuit board. The present invention is directed to solving these problems and satisfying a need for providing a very simple board-mounted electrical connector which is easy, simple and inexpensive to manufacture and assemble.